Rwanda Cuts Down Imports by 8%

Argentina-based company Positivo BGH set up an IT factory in Rwanda to produce laptops and other electronics

For the past four months, Rwanda has cut down the amount of goods it imports from major trading partners.

According to figures contained in ‘Formal External Trade’ report for December 2016 by National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), the country’s imports in the third quarter were worth US$ 439.39 million compared to US$ 481.15 million in the same period of 2015 – this represents 8.68% drop.

The report also indicates that during this period, Rwanda’s imports from East African Community (EAC) Partner States decreased by 9.79% compared to the same quarter of 2015 (US$ 125.95 million in the third quarter of 2015).

Uganda and Kenya were the main origin of Rwanda’s imports representing together about 77.95% of total imports from EAC. Tanzania takes the third place with 20.91% share of total imports from EAC and Burundi the last one with only a 1.14% share.

However, the country has intensified a campaign – ‘Made in Rwanda’ to increase its exports and cut down on imports of commodities that can otherwise be locally produced.

In the ‘Formal External Trade’ report, the country’s exports totaled US$ 112.54 million while imports totaled US$ 439.39 million. Thus total trade amounted to US$ 603.44 million representing a decrease of 5.92% over the third quarter of 2015.